This is exactly how I think of it. There's a vast, continuous, many-dimensional space around the qualities that an activity can have, and there's a small part of that space (say, *Creature*: the *Noun* games) that most of the people familiar with the things in that space say "yeah, that's an RPG" and there's lots of that space (say, the card game Bridge or a game of soccer) where most of the people familiar with the things in that space say "nah, that's not an RPG..."
But there are grey areas and where those are are different for each person, and exploring those areas with supportive-if-dis…